{"id":21643,"date":"2018-08-10T17:51:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T17:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe65c00026c3"},"modified":"2018-08-10T17:51:27","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T17:51:27","slug":"distributed-dialogues-blockchains-better-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/distributed-dialogues-blockchains-better-side","title":{"rendered":"Distributed Dialogues: Blockchain\u2019s Better Side"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The fact that great responsibility accompanies great power has become crystal clear in the blockchain world. While blockchains are most commonly connected with commerce, the potential impact of distributed ledgers is being discovered in fresh sectors daily.<\/p>\n

In the most recent episode of the Distributed Dialogues podcast, a collaborative show between the Let\u2019s Talk Bitcoin Network<\/a> and Distributed Magazine<\/a>, blockchain\u2019s better side was on display. The show explored three different perspectives on how the technology is being used, not just to raise crypto value, but to help humanity rise up.<\/p>\n

Blockchains for Human Rights<\/h3>\n

Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation<\/a> (HRF), explained that organization\u2019s optimism about blockchain technology. HRF is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. <\/p>\n

According to Gladstein in his interview with the show\u2019s co-host Rick Lewis, about 90 countries, with a total population of about 4 billion people, currently lack the checks and balances that a more open society would have.<\/p>\n

Gladstein believes that decentralized models such as blockchains and cryptocurrencies can make a world of difference for this large population whose rights are routinely violated. It\u2019s part of a nascent field he calls \u201cdemtech,\u201d short for \u201cdemocracy tech,\u201d and its development comes with an unexpected bonus. <\/p>\n

\u201cDemtech would be getting power back in the hands of the people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not really out there yet \u2026 but it\u2019s an opportunity, and what\u2019s cool is you can probably make a lot of money in this space. When you talk about decentralized money networks, decentralized VPNs, censorship-resistant money and communications, I think there\u2019s going to be huge demand for that \u2026There\u2019s tremendous opportunity to both impact the planet and make a lot of money, which is kind of a first for the human rights space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Behlendorf on Governance<\/h3>\n

Brian Behlendorf is the executive director of Hyperledger<\/a>, the umbrella project of open-source blockchains which is striving to support collaborative development for blockchain technology. As a primary developer of the Apache Web server, Behlendorf\u2019s influence has spanned the web for decades.<\/p>\n

His role as a founder of the Apache Software Foundation<\/a> has also established him as a long-time advocate of the open-software community. Behlendorf strikes a balance between the responsibilities that should be designated to machine and to man, in his interview with Distributed Dialogues co-host Dave Hollerith.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t give up the need to find ways, as humans, to make decisions together,\u201d Behlendorf pointed out. \u201cAnd so, I think the more of governance, the more of business processes that we can make algorithmic and auditable using blockchain technology, in addition to lots of others, the better off we\u2019ll be, because the more fair, potentially, we\u2019ll have the application of those rules to society.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we still need human governance at the end of the day,\u201d he continued, \u201cand even the public blockchain ledgers have that in the form of the leaders of those projects, and the developers and the miners, who collectively make a decision, \u2018Let\u2019s bail out the DAO, but let\u2019s not bail out the Parity Wallet hack victims.\u2019 So these things happen, right? These human governance mechanisms happen. We can either embrace that and find ways to do that right or pretend that doesn\u2019t exist and end up with Lord of the Flies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flux<\/h3>\n

Blake Burris and Kylen McClintock of Flux<\/a>, a new protocol for facilitating environmental data, spoke with segment host Tatiana Moroz<\/a>. Flux is a self-described \u201cproof of impact\u201d play which dedicates 10 percent of its allocations to impact projects to scale the protocol. <\/p>\n

According to the Flux website, it is deploying a sensor data network targeted at improving marketplaces and supply chains for agriculture, livestock and aquaculture. Its success, or proof of impact, will be measured by its ability to create partnerships that end desertification, stabilize crisis zones, integrate with micro-finance programs and help farmers increase their profitability.<\/p>\n

Here, blockchains prove beneficial, courtesy of the Flux token (currently in pre-sale). \u201cThe token really comes in to incentivize data contribution,\u201d McClintock explained <\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently there\u2019s expert growers around the world, or organizations that have specific data in a certain realm like carbon data, methane data, satellite imagery data, but right now there\u2019s not a global standard way to contribute to that and get rewarded for that contribution. [It\u2019s] another way of actually creating a custom perception engine, basically a custom machine learning model to be able to take the relevant data capsules that an organization, or government or academic research needs to find those insights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about those insights that can be derived from that mass data set, and paying on a pro rata basis back to those who contributed that data,\u201d added Burris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This episode of Distributed Dialogues explored three different perspectives on how blockchain is being used, not just to raise crypto value, but to help humanity rise up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3463,"featured_media":21644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1006,3514,581,3478,1455,3482,1739,3501],"class_list":{"0":"post-21643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alex-gladstein","9":"tag-brian-behlendorf","10":"tag-human-rights","11":"tag-hyperledger","12":"tag-interview","13":"tag-ltb","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-tatiana-moroz"},"author_data":{"id":3463,"name":"David Weiss","nicename":"david-weiss","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/david-weiss-promo-image-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/distributed-dialogues-blockchains-better-side.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}